departure
    n 1: the act of departing [syn: departure, going, going
         away, leaving]
    2: a variation that deviates from the standard or norm; "the
       deviation from the mean" [syn: deviation, divergence,
       departure, difference]
    3: euphemistic expressions for death; "thousands mourned his
       passing" [syn: passing, loss, departure, exit,
       expiration, going, release]

Departure \De*par"ture\ (?; 135), n. [From Depart.]
   1. Division; separation; putting away. [Obs.]
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            No other remedy . . . but absolute departure.
                                                  --Milton.
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   2. Separation or removal from a place; the act or process of
      departing or going away.
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            Departure from this happy place.      --Milton.
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   3. Removal from the present life; death; decease.
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            The time of my departure is at hand.  --2 Tim. iv.
                                                  6.
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            His timely departure . . . barred him from the
            knowledge of his son's miseries.      --Sir P.
                                                  Sidney.
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   4. Deviation or abandonment, as from or of a rule or course
      of action, a plan, or a purpose.
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            Any departure from a national standard. --Prescott.
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   5. (Law) The desertion by a party to any pleading of the
      ground taken by him in his last antecedent pleading, and
      the adoption of another. --Bouvier.
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   6. (Nav. & Surv.) The distance due east or west which a
      person or ship passes over in going along an oblique line.
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   Note: Since the meridians sensibly converge, the departure in
         navigation is not measured from the beginning nor from
         the end of the ship's course, but is regarded as the
         total easting or westing made by the ship or person as
         he travels over the course.
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   To take a departure (Nav. & Surv.), to ascertain, usually
      by taking bearings from a landmark, the position of a
      vessel at the beginning of a voyage as a point from which
      to begin her dead reckoning; as, the ship took her
      departure from Sandy Hook.

   Syn: Death; demise; release. See Death.
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DEPARTURE, pleading. Said to be when a party quits or departs from the case, 
or defence, which he has first made, and has recourse to another; it is when 
his replication or rejoinder contains matter not pursuant to the 
declaration, or plea, and which does not support and fortify it. Co. Litt. 
304, a; 2 Saund. 84, a, n. (1); 2 Wils. 98; 1 Chit. Pl. 619. The following 
example will illustrate what is a departure: if to assumpsit, the defendant 
plead infancy, and to a replication of necessaries, rejoin, duress, payment, 
release, &c., the rejoinder is a departure, and a good cause of demurrer, 
because the defendant quits or departs from the case or defence which he 
first made, though either of these matters, newly pleaded, would have been a 
good bar, if first pleaded as such. 
     2. A departure in pleading is never allowed, for the record would, by 
such means, be spun out into endless prolixity; for he who has departed from 
and relinquished his first plea, might resort to a second, third, fourth, or 
even fortieth defence; pleading would, by such means, become infinite. He 
who had a bad cause, would never be brought to issue, and he who had a good 
one, would never obtain the end of his suit. Summary on Pleading, 92; 2 
Saund. 84, a. n. (l); 16 East, R. 39; 1 M. & S. 395 Coin. Dig. Pleader, F 7, 
11; Bac. Abr. Pleas, L; Vin. Abr. Departure; 1 Archb. Civ. Pl. 247, 253; 1 
Chit. Pl. 618. 
     3. A departure is cured by a verdict in favor of him who makes it, if 
the matter pleaded by way of departure is a sufficient answer, in substance, 
to what is before pleaded by the opposite party; that is, if it would have 
been sufficient, if pleaded in the first instance. 2 Saund. 84 1 Lill. Ab. 
444. 

DEPARTURE, maritime law. A deviation from the course of the voyage insured. 
2. A departure is justifiable or not justifiable it is justifiable ill 
consequence of the stress of weather, to make necessary repairs, to succor a 
ship in distress, to avoid capture, of inability to navigate the ship, 
mutiny of the crew, or other compulsion. 1 Bouv. Inst. n. 1189.